Jan. 19, 2025

From Law Enforcement to Literature Rodney Carpentier's Inspiring Journey

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Join us on the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball as we explore the captivating journey of Rodney carpentier, a seasoned law enforcement professional and self-published author. Discover how he weaves two decades of police experience into his debut novel, set against the mysterious backdrop of the Catskill Mountains. Rodney shares his passion for writing, his transition from law enforcement, and his love for hiking. Dive into the intriguing stories from his career and learn about his upcoming projects. Don't miss this inspiring episode!
www.rlcarpentierwriter.com
Want to be a guest on Living the Dream with Curveball? Send Curtis Jackson a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1628631536976x919760049303001600

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome, um, to the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball. If you believe you can achieve cheap, cheap.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome to the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, a show where I interview guests that teach, motivate and inspire. Today I am joined by law enforcement professional and author Rodney.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Rodney uses his experience in law enforcement, which is almost two decades.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>He uses that experience for writing his books. So we're going to be talking to him about everything that he's up to and also some of the hobbies he enjoys doing. So Rodney, thank you so much for joining me today.

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> Rodney>Thank you very much.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?

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> Rodney>Sure. Um, I am. I've been working in law enforcement in New York State for the past 18 years, um, and most recently I, uh, self published my debut novel, um, on October 29th. And I use a lot of my personal experiences and my interactions with, um, with uh, other law enforcement professionals as kind of a basis for the characters and for the setting. And I use a lot of, um, very personal, you know, a lot of personal experiences, um, to put a sense of reality and a sense of realism into the um, to the world that I'm building with, uh, my law enforcement characters.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well what, what made you want to decide to get into law enforcement?

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> Rodney>Um, originally I was just looking for, for a job. Um, got married when I was 22 years old and um, my wife and I moved from New York to California. We lived um, in the Los Angeles area. And being young, just out of college, um, I thought that, you know, people would be tripping over themselves to pay me a lot of money to do whatever because I had a college degree. And I found out very quickly that that wasn't the case. Um, so I was working. I uh, worked a couple jobs while I was out there, but the job that was most promising when it came to salary was joining the lapd.

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> Rodney>So I kind of uh, um, looked into that. And being a large agency, they don't really have like a, like a civil service test that you go in and you pass and you have to wait on different things. They kind of have a continual recruiting process. So I just started the process and I was going through it and as, as I started meeting more and more people doing my background investigation and um, people that were working out there. I started kind of actually liking the, the idea of the job. I started reading, ah, a lot of true, you know, true stories or um, memoir type stuff, uh, by other law enforcement officers.

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> Rodney>And um, after a year we moved back from, moved, uh, back to New York. And I started looking actively at becoming a police officer in back here in New York. Um, then, uh, I started where a lot of police officers started, actually started working in corrections and worked as a New York State correction officer for two years, um, before taking a couple of local county tests. And I ended up in, um, 2008, getting hired by, uh, a local sheriff's office. And I've been there ever since for the 16, um, almost 16 and a half years.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay, well, congratulations on that.

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> Rodney>Thank you.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>You also like to hang out in the mountains, so tell people about the mountains, the particular mountain you really love so much and things you've done and why you like it so much.

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> Rodney>Um, the mountains, ironically became a kind uh, of a place of, um, a lot of reflection and, uh, kind of a newer thing. In the last ten years, uh, I had never hiked. I'd never been on a mountain. Um, my own experience prior to a couple years ago was I remember as a Boy Scout, we had to hike up a mountain. I don't remember what it was, but it was cold, it was snowy, and it was miserable. And I got to almost the top and I was about to quit when some of the other guys kind of, you know, bullied me into going all. All the way up.

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> Rodney>So, um, so I didn't really have a good, uh, good history with it. But my wife, um, started looking into hiking, uh, and all these trails up in the Catskill Mountains, um, of New York State. And we learned about, um, the Catskill 3500, which are 35 mountains in the Catskills that are over 3, 500ft. And it was. It was kind of a challenge. Um, they have a club and you can get a. You can get a number when you. When you finish doing everything. So we started doing that and we would make. We would make trips up there.

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> Rodney>And the Catskills are a vast area. They actually are in, I think, three different counties in New York State. And there's certain groups of them you have to go to, but a large portion of them are in Greene county, um, in the town of Hunter and the town of Windham, which are adjoining towns, um, up there. And we. We spent a lot of time camping up there originally and doing these hikes on the weekends and making big, you know, making trips to hit these mountains. And the more and more we would go up there, we'd, uh. You know, you'd have to go, you know, we'd go in the spring, we'd go in the summer, we'd go into fall. And then um, we started taking uh, little trips between Christmas and New Year's. M. After we had uh, had a ah. Had our child, um, my daughter would stay with my in laws and we would go up and kind of make it a you know, little getaway. And we started looking more and more about buying a house up there and really, really just fell in love with the whole area. So when it came time to writing my fiction, you know, law enforcement was the one end of things. But this, this place that I had fallen in love with, the Catskills, the town of Hunter, the town of Windham, the mountains and the views and all these different things were. Were to me were just a number one, a beautiful setting to have but also just kind of this mysterious, very um, secretive place. Um, it just seemed, you know, it seemed very, very apt for um. A place to. To put all these things.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Talk about some of the most interesting things that you've faced or that you've experienced throughout your law enforcement career.

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> Rodney>Um, you know, knock on wood. I've never really been anything too, too dangerous, you know. Um.

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> Rodney>Uh, mostly uh. My career has just kind of had its ups and downs. Which is what I try to portray in, in the novel.

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> Rodney>Um, is that I uh, started out as. As a uh, like I said, a correction officer originally. And that was. That was one experience to be you know, incarcerated. Um, speaking to having regular conversations with people who, who are incarcerated. Um, and then going to the working patrol and having these encounters with people on traffic stops or. In New York State the sheriff's office is responsible for civil process and for orders, protection. So you know, you're, you're going, you're going into all these weird, these different situations and meeting all these different people.

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> Rodney>Um, and then from, from that experience I moved and became an investigator and I worked um, for about three and a half, four years as an investigator primarily working uh, fraud cases.

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> Rodney>I, I started working um, with a number of other agencies, both federal, state and local and um, looking into these somewhat complex, sometimes not very complex, but just you know, easy ways of, of getting around the system and, and finding you know, you know, discovering where people were not following the rules and at least holding them accountable and letting the justice system kind of correct, you know, correct for that. Um, and I also did computer forensics for a little while, uh doing during that also and worked um, a bunch of different cases, um, involving against some fraud but also dealing with um, child uh, pornography. I did a big case with a uh, local agency in that. Um. And then after that I Became a supervisor, which was, to me, um, it happened at about the midway point of my career now. Um, and like I said, I've been in 16 and a half years. I've been a supervisor for nine of them, um, or nine plus. And that was really, I think, where my professor career, my life kind of changed. I had taken all the experiences I had before that, and now I was, um, supervising people who had been, um, people I looked up to. I.

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> Rodney>I actually initially supervi. Uh, my old partner was one of my initial subordinates when I got promoted, and he.

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> Rodney>He was probably eight or nine years older than me, but now I'm his boss. So that was a big change. Plus bringing in new folks and really teaching them, um, how law enforcement worked, how the sheriff's office worked, and. And trying to become a little bit of a mentor and becoming a little bit out, um, and learning the leadership skills that you really need to. To thrive in that m.

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> Rodney>And then with being at that level also the, you know, kind of going in. In and out of the. The political aspects of being at a, you know, being in a job and being a supervisor, um, finding that, um, I was kind of stuck with, um, some. Some difficult situations personally, and in having to, you know, kind of smile and grip my teeth through some of these more negative situations. Um, you know, something like being stuck on midnights as a supervisor for, um, almost four years and then transitioning from that to working strictly afternoons and the different things that go along with the different personalities. Um, you know, before getting to the position where I am now, where I'm one of the most senior supervisors, and now, you know, I push paper all day. I don't. I don't directly really supervise anybody.

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> Rodney>And I'm responsible more for, uh, getting things done administratively. So it's, you know, you know, there's been a progression and a big, big change in where my career's gone.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Tell us about your book. You know, tell us, um, what we can purchase it and what readers can expect when they read it.

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> Rodney>Well, sure. Um, so I'll start off. Uh, you can purchase, um, the book through my website, rlcarpentierwriter.com um, that is a printed copy. Um, I sign each one personally.

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> Rodney>I personalize it, um, as much as I can.

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> Rodney>Um, um, it is also available through, uh, through Amazon and through Kindle, um, so people can go there.

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> Rodney>Also, obviously, I prefer, you know, a little bit more of the direct approach. Um, you know, again, more personal. You can get on my website. You can sign up for a bunch of the different things that I have there, that's that information. But essentially the book um, is the first in a trilogy and it really explores um, a brand new police officer who is starting uh, out trying to learn how to do um, the rookie things. How to stop a car, how to talk to people, how to interact with folks. Um, and in the middle of that he is approached by a podcaster. Um, that's why I love going on podcast shows.

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> Rodney>Get to drop the name, you know, get to drop the podcast thing and the connection to you hard working folks.

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> Rodney>Um, but this uh, true crime podcaster approaches him and gives him some information that he never knew. And that information involves that is uh, the main character.

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> Rodney>His name is Mike. His father had been a police officer and had risen to the rank of chief before he uh, he had passed away at an untimely age. And um, he finds out that his father, when he was a rookie had been involved in a homicide case, um, involving a young woman who had been left at one of these overlooks. Again takes place up in the Catskills. Um, the, the uh, body of the young woman was discovered by some hikers and he was the first, he was the first law enforcement officer there. And this is something that Mike has never heard before. It doesn't have a very, didn't ever had a really good relationship with his father. So then he begins kind of getting the background on it when one night Mike's working regular patrol and he gets called to um, the trailhead of the same, the same overlook and he comes upon his own dead body and his own murder investigation. And he starts to think that it's a little bit too much of a coincidence. And now he is looking to try to tie these two cases together and it's kind of uh, his adventures, misadventures and the um, you know, some of his naivete works for him and works against him at the same time. But he's able to crack the 40 year old case open and while still working on trying to figure out his own at the same time.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Why did you decide to write this book?

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> Rodney>Um, I decided to write this book. Um, the idea for this book came um, when I was, I was working as a mid, on midnights as a sergeant and uh, I had

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00 the previous afternoon and it was

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00 in the morning so almost 12 hours into, into a very long day. Was tired.

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Um, and when you get that tired and nothing's really happening, you kind of, you know, you doze, you start hearing things Seeing things and trying to keep myself as alert as I could. I was sitting in, uh, our squad room when this idea popped in my head. And the, the original question that I asked myself, or the original thing that popped my head was, what if you were, um, adopted? You knew where you were adopted, but as you started to look up, look into the, the background of your parents, you found out that your, that your mother was the victim of this cold case homicide nobody solved, nobody knows who she is. And now, now you've, You've got this new information, and what do you, you know, what do you do with that? And so that was kind of the impetus behind it. Um, so I started. I started kind of playing with the idea again to keep myself kind of awake. And we, uh.

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And as I kind of started to sketch out some of, some of the ideas and develop some of the early characters and what I wanted to do with it, I was, you know, excited because it was so. Such a new, new thing in my head.

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Um, and ironically, we were going up to go, um, hiking that, that afternoon. And um, you know, I left work, went to, went home, went, got a nap in. Then we went up to hike. And I remember describing my idea to my wife, and she's like, okay, yeah, that sounds interesting. But I'm like, I just felt differently, uh, that I wanted to do something with it.

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Um, and for a little bit of context, this was in May of 2022, um, toward the end of May, my, um, father had passed away in April, um, so about six weeks prior to that. And for some reason, um, you know, all these, all these other feelings and all these other ideas started kind of creeping into my head around the same story. And I said I wanted, I wanted to actually put this down and I actually wanted to kind of develop the story and see where it went. So I kind of kind of put my nose to the, you know, put my nose to the grindstone. And I really started kind of, uh, dusting off some old skills and dusting off some, um, some things I had learned, you know, in college, uh, about writing and about literature. And I started kind of really trying to, to formulate the story when, um, I eventually wound up on YouTube and in podcast land and really found a lot of very intelligent, very, very smart people who helped kind of change my perspective on how I was writing and really kind of inspired me to bring on a new process so that I could get the ideas out of my head and onto a computer screen. And from there it was, uh, it became kind of kind of a mission for me in the last year to not only get this story out of me, but I wanted to get it out to people also. Um, so once I had the, the drafts done, it was about learning how to publish or self publish or what I needed to do. And, you know, I spent most of last year working on that, um, and got to kind of an inflection point, uh, in August where I was at a, I was at a convention and I was meeting all these, these, these writers and these publishers and stuff. And I said, you know what? I'm going to self publish this thing. I'm going to put it out. And so I just chose to put it out on October 29th. And um, it's been out in the world. And I'm just trying to get people, you know, trying to get people's ears through, through situations like this so that they can get their eyes on it and, uh, and have that experience.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Tell us about any upcoming projects that you're working on that people need to know about.

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> Rodney>Well, yeah, it's actually very, very exciting time for me personally. I just finished the second book of the trilogy. Um, and basically my process is, is to get it out and get it done. Um, I don't go back and edit. I don't, I don't look back. I keep going forward, all always forward.

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> Rodney>And I got it done and basically you kind of got to forget about it for a couple weeks. So kind, um, of in that process right now where it's, it's sitting and kind of, um, you know, fermenting and maturing a little bit. I'm, um, gonna go back to that. Uh, I have an editor already lined up to start working, um, in the middle of February. So I'm really, really looking at probably a summer release, maybe late summer release or book two. So that's really exciting. Um, and then I just started a Patreon page, um, looking for some people who want to get a little bit more invested. Uh, and through the Patreon, I'm going to be releasing, um, some extra material, um, stuff that I had cut out of, um, the first book, um, which I don't think I've mentioned. The book is called Our lady of the Overlook. I don't think I mentioned that.

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> Rodney>Um, I cut, uh, a bunch of stuff out of it because the original way I was writing it was having two characters in a kind of a parallel storyline and they were going to meet in the middle. And as I wrote it, I didn't like the way it was developing. So I cut one of the characters to just introduce her in the middle of the novel as opposed to kind of following the two of them. So I have all this material about this very um, important character, just not the main character of the. Of the trilogy.

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> Rodney>And I'm going to start releasing kind um of episodic, kind of serialized um chapters of that while we kind uh, of gear up towards the release of book two so that people can get a little bit of more context and a little bit more um. Involved in that.

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> Rodney>So that's another project I'm working on and once we're done with that I have another group of serialization stuff that I'm working on um, that's a little bit less developed.

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> Rodney>And then of course after book two gets out, I want to get book three out. Plus uh, I have um, at least two other um, non fiction uh works that I'm working on. There are some old ideas um again taking place in the Cat Skills but this, these are a little bit more uh, historical uh fiction where they're taking. One takes place um in 1941 and the other one takes place in the latest 60s followed by uh, two non. Two non uh fiction works that I'm working on. One um, involves the 1981 Brinks, um robbery in Rockland County, New York where I reside. Um, where I live.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Um. Um.

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> Rodney>Two uh. Two police officers and a Brink scarp were killed um, by um. By some ro. By uh some robbers.

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> Rodney>And I want to talk about the. In the impact of the community, on the community.

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> Rodney>Um, because a lot of the people that were here in 1981 are still here and they knew these folks and these were real people. Uh, and the second project was uh, a little bit closer to the Catskills, um and involves uh, a woman who left her job at 11 o'clock at night back in 2002, had a 10 minute drive home and never showed up home. And to this day they don't know what happened to her. And there's a lot of theories and a lot of things I'd like. Uh. I have a connection to the family in a distant way and I'd like to um, kind of put that out in a book also. So I have a lot of projects. I have a lot of stuff that you know I'm working on right now.

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> Rodney>So I'm, I'm really excited. Um, and I'm gearing up to turn the writing thing into my career post law enforcement which uh, um. Sadly or happily will be over um in the fall of 2028. So just trying to Gear up so that all these things are ready to go when I retire.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay, well, so listeners can keep up with everything that you're up to. Throw out your website again.

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> Rodney>Yep. It's ah, R L Carpentier Carpenter. Uh, spelled C, A, R, P, E, N T, I, e, r.

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> Rodney>That's rlcarpentierwriter.com.

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> Rodney>um, again, I'm on Patreon. I'm on Facebook, Tick Tock, uh, Instagram. I. I'm trying to throw out a lot of the social media stuff just to keep people engaged. I have a lot of, um, people who knew me, who are, who are good fans, and I have a lot of new, new fans that are, that are coming aboard every day. So, um, happy to have as many people, uh, you know, along for the ride as possible.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>All right, close us out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on or any final thoughts you have for the listeners.

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> Rodney>Um, sure. Um, one of the things I came up with actually, um, through another podcast interview was this idea of early is on time. On time is late, and late is not acceptable. Um, it was a family, uh, mantra again, going back to my father. Uh, he used to say it to me all the time, and I, uh, always live by that. I hate. I hate being late, I hate running late.

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> Rodney>I hate showing up, you know, right on time.

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> Rodney>You know, I guess, you know, my wife, My wife would complain that, you know, we're always early and maybe too early. Um, so I started, uh, really thinking about this during, during one of the podcasts. And it kind of became a mantra for me that, um, me personally, that, you know, being early is being prepared and being late is being unprepared. And if you're showing up right on time, maybe you're still not prepared. And, um, I wanted, I want, you know, I've been. I've been kind of using that as, As a background for what I'm doing with my, uh, you know, with my transition here from law enforcement to, to a writer is I didn't wait till, you know, I was ready to retire and say, okay, now I'm going to start this thing. You know, I'm trying to be early. I'm trying to make those plans, trying to foresee where I want to go and at least act. Because if you don't act on something, you're always going to have these regrets. You're always going to have these things you wish you had done. So, um, so it's kind of become my, My, uh, my personal motto. I'm trying to turn it into my brand a little bit. I, uh, started to get it onto some merchandise. Uh, I have some coffee cups figured, um, everybody, you know, everybody has pure coffee. So put it on a mug and, um, you know, and it just, basically it just says, you know, early is on time, on time is late. Late is not acceptable. So it's kind of, um, you know, who I am to a degree also, um, and want to spread that message of, of just being prepared for. Being prepared for life and being prepared for what the the next thing to come at you is going to be.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>All right, ladies and gentlemen, arpenter writer.com please be sure to check out his book, his writings. Keep up with everything that he's up to. Follow Rate Review Share this episode to as many people as possible.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Jump on your favorite podcast app, follow the show, check it out. Leave us a review. Share it. If you have any guests or suggestion topics, Curtis Jackson 1978@att.net is the place to send them. Thank you for listening and supporting the show. Rodney, thank you for all that you do and thank you for joining us.

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> Rodney>Thank you very much.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>For more information on the Living the Dream podcast, visit www.djcurveball.com.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>until next time, stay focused on living the dream. Dream.